The Florida Reef stretches along the Atlantic Gulf Stream from 6 miles east of Miami to Key West.

This treacherous coral reef has claimed thousands of ships and countless mariners. Between 1852 and 1880, the U.S. Government built 6 platform dwelling, screw-pile, iron-skeleton lighthouse 6 to 8 miles offshore.

Fowey Rocks Light is the northernmost light that marks the location where ocean going ships turn west into Miami. Like the other lights, it was named after a wrecked ship, the HMS Fowey. Built in 2 years at a cost of $163,000.00, it was lit in 1878.